Jack Ross apologises to Dundee United fans as he admits 'damaged pride' after AZ Alkmaar thrashing

Jack Ross owned up to Dundee United 's poor performance in Alkmaar - and apologised to the travelling fans for their dismal Europa Conference League exit.

Ross and his team picked up a huge first-leg victory at Tannadice and travelled to Alkmaar potentially just 90 minutes away from a place in the next round. But it was one disaster after another as the Dutch side ran riot, with keeper Mark Birighitti shaky between the sticks as he conceded FIVE first half goals.

Just 16 minutes of football separated Vangelis Pavlidis' opener from Dani de Wit's sixth, which came seconds after the restart. And a dejected Ross apologised to the near-2,000 Tangerines who travelled from Dundee, urging his team to pick themselves up for a Premiership clash with Hearts at the weekend.

He said: "I would like to apologise to the travelling fans. We should be better than that but we need to use it to drive ourselves on and better ourselves.

"First and foremost, we need to start producing domestic results. We've got a big game on Sunday so all focus has to go on that, there's no point dwelling on tonight. We've got to be ready to go."

"For every plaudit and praise we received last Thursday, we deserve every bit of criticism we get on the back of that tonight. We played against a good team in a tough venue, but we conceded six goals in 26 minutes between the first and the sixth. That's not good, irrespective of the opponent. I'm broad-shouldered enough to deal with it, but it was a tough, tough night for us.

"We didn't win fortuitously last week, we deserved to do so. The first 20 minutes tonight, I thought we were OK, and even after the first goal we had a chance with Ian not long after it. But all the discipline we showed with our play last